As a missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, I will be serving in Taiwan for 18 months as a representative of the Lord, Jesus Christ in teaching His Gospel. I hope this blog will help you see into the soul of a sister missionary, an ordinary 21 year old girl simply wanting to share the thing that brings the most peace and joy into her life: living the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

Tuesday, September 6, 2011

Happy My Birthday!

Thank you SOOO much for all those sweet birthday messages! I was so touched at each of your thoughtful messages. It's definitely made this birthday special! I can't wait to open all those brightly wrapped presents!! But most of all, I'm thankful for your love through your letters this week. :) I especially enjoyed the rainbows :)

This week was special too as we had a ward birthday party after church yesterday for all the people whose birthdays are in September, including me! It was so sweet to see my name on a cutely cut out pink and yellow heart up on the board with all the other names. They gave me a balloon hat and it was so special to be able to celebrate with everyone... so I still got a birthday party! Imagine that! Since we can't take pictures on any other day except for Preparation Day I wasn't able to get any of my own, but some of the members took some and said they'd put them up on facebook, so be sure to add all the people that want to be friends with me and find the ones that have those birthday pictures up! They're super cute! (I hope you can find Sister Yao... she said she'd put them up).

This week has been good, but difficult as well. We've seen good things happening like our golden investigator on the 8th floor of our apartment building, Zhang jiemei, progressing like crazy. She loves and completely understands the Book of Mormon. She has wonderful questions and completely agrees with all of the commandments. She is seeing how in her family disobedience to those commandments has brought a lot of sorrow and she is seeking our help and the help of the Lord through prayer to be able to help her daughter, sister and mother want to learn the message of the Gospel too. What a wonderful sister. We love her.

On the other side of the spectrum, there was an amah and her daughter that were completely receptive and felt the Spirit throughout the first lesson we shared with them but when we went back to visit they had left, and when we called they said their other church friends had said that what we teach is different than them and to not listen to us and when Sister Smith tried to help them understand they said, "we're not talking to you anymore" and hung up the phone. So heartbreaking! Our wise district leader counseled us to stop by their house and drop off some flowers or fruit to show them how much we still love them, and hopefully, some day, they'll choose to accept the message again. But I guess that's just how the work goes sometimes, right?

I've been learning lately the importance of developing Christlike attributes. Another one of our investigators is struggling a lot with family issues at home. Every time she comes she always says how she's tired from going to work and when she gets home it's even more tiring the deal with the challenging family circumstances. It seems like there's no way out! But it was precious to hear last night as we met with her after church that she felt a lot of peace by coming to church and it was as if she was able to forget all her troubles and cares. We promised her that by continuing to come to church, seeking help from our Heavenly Father through prayer, and by searching the scriptures she would be able to find more and more of that peace. We also promised that through this trial she would be able to develop Christlike attributes such as patience and charity, and that by doing so she would come closer to the Lord. I know that's true because that's what I've been learning lately too.

It's challenging stepping up to the plate as a Senior Companion and having all your weaknesses magnified. The scripture Ether 12:27 have come often to my mind. I've been comforted as that scripture reminds me that my weaknesses are helping me to be more humble, which will bring (and has brought) me closer to the Lord and helped me recognize my dependence on Him. It's such a blessing to know that with the Lord, these weaknesses can be turned into strengths. Right now I'm still at the point where I'm hoping that's true, haha. But I do have hope because I've seen it before, and I'll keep working in faith to become the even stronger, more humble servant of the Lord He would have me be.

I love being a missionary! I hope you all have a wonderful week, even though I can't be there for my birthday. Thanks for making it so special anyway! All my love from across the world,